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Is parana pine suitable for using as a soundboard? I know it's properties vary a lot - the stuff I've got seems relatively hard and dense compared to some I've seen.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

You mean this? http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Araucaria_angustifolia

¿Where did you get that?

I've seen some Classics guitar here in Argentina with Parana's pine top.

It's suitable, but is not high quality.

Yes, that's the one. I have a plank that's been lying around in my dad's garage for about 10 years. I think it was from a piece of furniture that he brought over from Brazil when he moved from there as a boy, so I don't really know where it came from! I've heard it shrinks a lot along the grain, so I thought it might not be stable enough for a guitar. It looks really nice though, with red and white streaks in it.

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"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars

I'm afraid I'm not of much help, but Australians sometimes use bunya pine for tops, which is also an araucaria (although not the closest relative of parana pine) - what's the density of your stuff?

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member of the guild of professional dilettantes

Peter, check this: http://lutheriasergioledesma.blogspot.com.ar/search?updated-max=2011-09-02T18:25:00-07:00&max-results=7&start=2&by-date=false

This luthier used parana pine (pino brasil) as a guitar top.

A while ago in www.mercadolibre.com.ar (like ebay) there was these tops on sell pretty cheap.

Bunya Pine is listed in Bootle "Wood in Australia" (McGraw Hill), the standard reference around here, with density of 460kg/m^3 and Youngs Modulus 13 GPa, which puts it up there with the best spruces. This single listing is probably why it gets used for guitars. I've never found a piece anything like that stiff. Run of the mill stuff is more like 4 to 5 GPa and 500 to 550 Kg/m^3. I've never bothered building with it and the guitars I've heard sound like the latter set of properties.

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Trevor Gore, Luthier. Australian hand made acoustic guitars, classical guitars; custom guitar design and build; guitar design instruction.

http://www.goreguitars.com.au

I haven't got very accurate scales, but as close as I can measure, it is about 620kg/m3 which sounds way off. The average density is 550 and the higher density stuff has an average modulus of elasticity of about 10,000 N/mm2 according to TRADA.

_________________
"I am always doing that which I cannot do, in order that I may learn how to do it."
Pablo Picasso

https://www.facebook.com/FenskeGuitars